Heroes -- The Series
/"So what," you say?
I'm starting with my favorite, The Tortured Hero. Keira at Romance Love Passion calls him the Brooding Hero, but I like tortured better. When I hear the word brood, I think sulky and Maximus Decimus Meridias was NOT a sulker. :D
The storyteller for Gladiator immediately wraps every woman around his finger by opening the story in Max's home. The heartfelt goodbye, the noble duty... and finally the agony. I mean, what woman doesn't want to think that if she is dead, her lover will wreak vengeance on everyone involved? It's so romantic. [okay, yes, i'm chuckling a little, but we all have our fantasies. *wink*]
William Wallace gave us this in Braveheart, another movie that just pulls on all the right strings. Course, Gibson is no where near as nice looking as Crowe, but... since this isn't a blog post about looks, I'll move on. :D
Okay, one more picture of a tortured hero. Though not a main character, Gabriel Martin's story held my attention in this epic saga about the Civil War. The thing is, you're actually glad when the tortured hero dies... I think that's a key element in all of these movies. Though it isn't the death I'm wishing for, it's the reunion...in a tradedy, they can't always be separated.
It's the emotion that a tortured hero evokes that leaves that mark in our minds. I think we want to do that in our books, as well. Nora Roberts did this in Public Secrets. Her primary, secondary--really the story was intricate, there were actually two heroes--hero, Brian was a tortured mess! I LOVED IT! Still my all time favorite book.
Check out Penny's blog in another day or two, and she'll be featuring the next hero in our series... The Beta Hero--everybody loves a nerd at least once in their life.
